A Demographic Analysis of Populations of a Mushroom Coral Exposed to Contrasting Levels of Disturbance

The rates of sexual and asexual recruitment were quantified over 3.5 years, in addition to the rates of growth, injury and survival of the different sizes and stages of polyps of Fungia fungites at Mainland and East Lewis reef in the Dampier Archipelago (see large thumbnail).

From this data, the rates of transition of polyps through their life cycle (vital rates) were obtained and incorporated into simple stage-structured matrix models that estimated the growth rates of the populations, their likelihood of approaching stability, and the relative importance of different polyp stages to population maintenance.